Sweet Nothing
by Nanase Haruka
Summary: AU. Kuroko Tetsuna has stopped playing basketball for the time being, but she simply can't be completely away from her favourite sport. She joins Seirin's basketball team as the manager. What happens when her old Teiko teammates find out and how will the series unfold with this change? Fem!KurokoXGoM with final pairing of Akashi/Kuroko
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: I do not own Kuroko no Basuke.

* * *

**Chapter 1**

Teiko Middle School has an incredibly strong basketball team with over 100 members and they were famous for their three consecutive wins at the national championship. However, even among their brilliant record, there was a group of members that stood out – the Generation of Miracles. There were five members, who were all geniuses in their own right, but there was a strange rumour that there was a sixth member that the others acknowledged and respected…

It was the first day of the new school year and for Seirin, it was only its second year open since it had been established recently. A girl with shoulder-length sky blue hair and matching eyes was reading a book while walking through the crowd, but no one noticed her. She skillfully weaved in and out without bumping into anyone.

"Are you interested in shogi?"

"Want to join the literary club?"

"If you're Japanese, you should try baseball!"

The girl glanced up from her book and saw that she was standing in front of the basketball club's desk. The two upper years – a girl with short brown hair with her bangs held back by two clips and a male with short, spiky black hair with glasses – clearly didn't notice her presence, so she made herself known by clearing her throat softly.

"AHH!"

"EH?!"

"Sorry." The blue haired female said, monotonously. "I would like to join the basketball club please."

The older pair took a few seconds to compose themselves and wondered to themselves when she had appeared in front of them without them detecting her.

"Oh, that's great! Please fill out this form." The female handed the smaller teen a piece of paper, which she took and sat down in front of them. "My name is Aida Riko and I'm the coach for the basketball team."

"I'm Hyuuga Junpei, captain of the Seirin. Are you looking to be the manager?" The glasses-wearing boy asked the recruit.

"Yes. My name is Kuroko Tetsuna. I am pleased to meet you."

_Wow, she's so polite and formal! This is how kouhai should be!_ Hyuuga smiled with little sparkles and flowers behind him.

"I think you may know already, but our school was just opened last year. All the sempai are only second years…"

"Yes, I am aware of that, that is why I wanted to join Seirin." Kuroko replied softly. She handed back a completed form to Riko, who scanned it quickly. Her brown eyes widened drastically when she noted that the girl was a former Teiko student.

"Eh, you're from Teiko?" Riko exclaimed, but when she looked up, the girl was gone.

"What? She's from Teiko? If she's a first year, then it's possible she was from the Generation of Miracles!" Hyuuga deduced.

"But she's a girl! There's no way she was a regular." Riko countered her friend's reasoning. The two teens shrugged it off and decided they would find out in time. "So far, we have one, two… ten applications so far. Perhaps we need a few more."

_I wonder how Koganei and Tsuchida are doing with the advertising? Do your best to bring back promising people!_ Riko thought.

Koganei's tear-ridden face suddenly appeared in her view and he was saying, "I brought back a new student…"

An extremely tall first-year was gripping the shorter boy's uniform and his piercing red eyes zeroed in on Riko.

"Is this the basketball club?"

"WAAH!" Riko yelled, surprised at the teen's appearance. "… Yeah, this is the basketball club."

_Brought back..? Isn't it the other way around?_ The coach asked herself. _On top of everything, it feels like there's a wild tiger in front of me! What is this guy?_

She then proceeded to ramble on about how Seirin had just opened the previous year, but the first-year didn't seem to care and he blatantly stated so. The red head sat down and took the offered cup of tea.

"Give me a paper. I'll just write down my name and go back."

When Riko obtained his form back, she observed that he had gone to middle school in America. _Ooh, he trained in the best place! Kagami Taiga-kun… Hm, no matter how you look at it, he definitely isn't an average guy!_

"Um, you didn't write anything for your goals." Riko stated, still looking at the paper.

Kagami crushed the paper cup in his hand, while walking away, and answered with only a glance backwards, "Japanese basketball is the same everywhere. It's weak."

After the tall freshman was out of hearing distance, Koganei collapsed on the table that he was sitting at and shouted, "S-SCARY! Is that guy really a freshman?"

Riko sighed, "Forget about that, I wanna know what's up with the freshmen this year… There's a girl from Teiko and that first-year from America!"

Koganei looked surprised at her exclamation, "Eh, someone from Teiko? The middle school with the Generation of Miracles?"

"But she's a girl and she applied to be the manager anyway…" Hyuuga retorted, seeming disappointed slightly.

* * *

Later that day, the boy's basketball club was gathered in Seirin's gymnasium. The freshmen were conversing with one another until Riko stepped in, "Alright, it seems that everyone's here. Could all the freshmen assemble in front of me?"

One of the freshmen glanced at Riko and then murmured to his friend, "Hey, isn't that manager cute?"

"Yeah, she's a second year, right? If only she was a little more sexy…"

Before their conversation could continue, Hyuuga came up from behind and whacked their heads, "You're wrong, morons."

Riko announced to the club, knowing that there would be assumptions that she was the manager of the club, "I'm the boys basketball club's coach, Aida Riko. Nice to meet you!"

All the freshmen looked shocked at the revelation, "EHHH?! The coach?" They all glanced at the elderly man sitting on a nearby bench.

"That's Takeda-sensei, he's the advisor." She continued, not looking at all perturbed.

"Seriously? Wait, is that even allowed?"

"Well, now then… Everyone, take off your shirts!"

The males all blushed and looked at each other, clearly hesitant. Out of nowhere, a blue-haired girl appeared in front of their coach with her hand raised and she asked, "Should I take off my shirt as well, coach?"

Everyone, including the upper years, jumped in the air a good metre and screamed.

"W-wha..?"

"Where did she come from?"

"That scared the crap out of me..!"

Riko held up a hand to her chest, in hopes of slowing down her racing heartbeat. "Oh, Kuroko-chan… Since when were you there?"

"I was here since the beginning." She replied, nonchalantly as if she hadn't just scared everyone with her lack of presence.

"Eh… Well everyone, I'd like you to meet our new manager. Kuroko Tetsuna, right?" Kuroko simply nodded in reply.

"I didn't even notice her…"

"She's cute!"

"It's like she has no presence."

"Back to business… Take off your shirts! Minus you, Kuroko-chan." The brown-haired coach clapped her hands to bring the attention back to her. She added the last part as she noticed that Kuroko was about to take off her t-shirt. There were a few disappointed groans as soon as she stopped, which were immediately silenced by the coach's glare. "Kuroko-chan, come stand over here."

The slightly taller girl complied without a word and Riko began to analyze the topless boys in front of her.

"You." She pointed a dark-haired male, "Your instantaneous strength is weak. I'm guessing you must be around 50 steps for twenty seconds on the quick ladder training exercise, right? If you want to play basketball, you should improve that a bit. You, your body is too stiff. Train your flexibility after getting out of the bath! As for you…"

The boys being told about their weaknesses were in disbelief over their situation, especially because she was correct about everything. Hyuuga thought this would be a good time to mention that her father is a sports trainer and that she spent everyday at his workplace looking at muscles and data since she was young.

"Just with a glance, her eyes can see all its abilities and stats." Hyuuga smiled as he said this. When Riko came across the last member in the line, she stopped, looking in awe at the body in front of her.

"… What?" Kagami inquired, staring down at her.

_What the hell? His numbers aren't even close to everyone else's! They're amazingly high and definitely not expected of a first-year in high school… And on top of that, I can't seem to estimate his full potential! This is… Natural talent!_ Riko admired silently.

"Coach! How long are you going to daydream?" Hyuuga snapped at her. The female coach hadn't even realized she had spaced out for such a long time and that she actually had a small trail of drool coming out of her mouth.

Embarrassed, she wiped her mouth with her sleeve, "S-sorry! So, err…"

"That's the last of them, right?" Hyuuga pointed out.

"Yeah, okay, let's start practice then!"

* * *

After practice was finished for the day, Riko asked the only other female to stay behind for a little chat, while dismissing the other members.

"So, Kuroko-chan, do you have any experience with basketball? Do you know the rules?"

"Well, I did help out with my middle school's basketball team from time to time, but they already had a manager." Kuroko lied. Although she was uncomfortable with not telling the truth, she didn't want to play basketball at this time. "I am familiar with the rules."

"Okay, that's all I needed to know. I'm the one who mostly collects the data, but we can go over it together." Riko smiled at the other girl, which she returned, albeit much smaller.

* * *

Kuroko's cell vibrated as she was walking home from Seirin and she flipped it open to see that Akashi, her former captain from Teiko, had texted her.

[Tetsuna, which school did you go to? Remember the oath you took.]

[I am at Seirin, but may I request that you do not inform the others of this?]

[I'll allow you this, Tetsuna, but you owe me a favour in the future.]

Kuroko let out a sigh of relief. She would listen to Akashi, but she didn't want anyone else to find out about her attendance at Seirin. It wasn't the right time yet.

On her way home, Kuroko passed the Maji Burger and decided that she would get a vanilla milkshake. The blue-haired girl sat down at a table for two and a few minutes later she was joined by Kagami, whom had a tray with a pyramid of burgers piled on it.

_The Generation of Miracles, huh?_ Kagami had overheard three of his fellow freshmen talking about an extremely strong team from Teiko that had dominated the middle school circuit. _If it's those guys then maybe they would be a challenge…_

Kagami was currently looking out the window of the burger joint with his thoughts wandering. So when he turned back to his gigantic amount of burgers and saw the manager of Seirin's basketball club sitting across from him, he nearly flipped his entire tray out of fright.

"GWOH!?"

"Hello. That is a lot of food, but I guess you are still growing, right?" The female commented with fleeting amusement, while sipping her straw.

"From where… Wait, what are you doing here?" Kagami shouted, earning a lot of glares from fellow customers of Maji Burger.

"Well, I was sitting here since the beginning. I was just people watching."

_Ugh, she scared the shit outta me..! I seriously didn't even notice her... and wait, she was watching people? What the hell?_ Kagami thought.

"Anyway, can I ask you a few questions? After I'm done eating this, of course."

"… Sure."

* * *

A while later, Kagami and Kuroko were walking along the street in silence, when Kagami initiated the conversation, "I was in America until my second year of middle school. I was truly shocked when I returned to Japan; the level of basketball here is too low! I'm not looking to play basketball for fun; I want to play against challenging people who make my blood boil! But I heard something interesting earlier… There's a strong group called the 'Generation of Miracles' in the same year as us. Coach said you were from Teiko, so what do you know about them?"

"Well, as you know… they are incredibly powerful and they are all geniuses in basketball. They each have their own specialty and particular skill when it comes to basketball. They also split up once entering high school." Kuroko answered, staring straight into Kagami's eyes, which required her to crane her neck quite a lot.

"If I were to go one-on-one with them now, how would I do?" The redhead asked curiously.

Kuroko didn't even blink or bother censoring the truth when she said, "You would be annihilated."

"Ugh, do you have to put it like that?"

"That is the truth." Kuroko replied and Kagami just sighed, before saying goodbye and leaving.

* * *

_This is my first multi-chaptered KnB story, so hopefully you all enjoy this! I think I'm going to make this a GoMxKuroko story, but the final pairing will be AkaKuro (because they are my favourite and the fandom needs moar of this). Please review and feed my ego!_


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2**

It was raining heavily the next day, so the basketball team was confined to indoor work. Kuroko looked at the coach and asked, "Since we cannot let the team go out in the rain to train… what should we do, Riko-san?"

Kuroko was not one to feel comfortable with calling other people by their first names, but the other female had adamantly insisted that she do so. She had to acknowledge Riko's persistence, so she gave in.

"Hmm… Let's have a 5-vs-5 mini match between first and second-years!" The brunette announced.

"A match against the upper years, that means…!" One of the freshmen trailed off, looking frightened.

"Do you remember what they told us when we joined the club? Their result from last year… With only freshmen, they made it until the finals of the Interhigh!"

"Seriously? We're completely out of our league!"

Contrary to the other first-years, Kagami looked fairly excited at the prospect of playing against his upperclassmen, "Now isn't the time to be scared. The thrill is in playing a strong opponent, rather than a weak one, right? Let's get it on!"

The two teams lined up in the middle of the court and bowed to each other. With his superior height, Kagami easily won the tip-off and sent it backwards to his fellow teammates. The other first-years couldn't help but be impressed as the redhead immediately ran down the court with the ball and dunked it.

"UWOH!" Furihata exclaimed in awe, as he watched Tsuchida get pushed back from the mere force of Kagami's dunk.

"Wow, that's amazing!"

"Yeah, seriously, what's up with that dunk?!"

Kuroko stared intently at Kagami, her face showing absolutely nothing of what she was thinking.

_That was a good dunk… But compared to Aomine-kun or even Kise-kun…_ The blue-haired girl unnoticeably shook her head and jotted down a few notes on her clipboard. Riko was frozen at the skill that Kagami had just displayed and blew her whistle, signaling for the two teams to line up again.

_I've never seen anything close to this! Even though his current style is unpolished, his sense of play and destructive power are far beyond that of a first-year's!_ The female coach thought.

Hyuuga used his jersey to wipe off some sweat from his chin, "Hey… That's kind of insane."

It had only been two minutes in, but the freshmen were surprisingly in the lead with a score of 11-8. All of these points had one common denominator—Kagami Taiga. He was currently the only one scoring points for the solely freshmen team (minus that one fluke three-pointer from Fukuda).

Izuki stole the ball from on of the first-years and went to complete a layup, but the fierce redhead caught on and blocked the shot. Everyone looked shocked (with the exception of one ex-Teiko girl) and commented on the height of the block.

A grin stretched across the basketball captain's face as he said, "We definitely can't let the game continue in this manner! I think it's about time we took care of you!"

Kagami once again had the ball in his possession; however, to his surprise, he had not one or two guys marking him, but three! The red-haired male had no choice but to pass it to one of his teammates.

"Even when he doesn't have the ball, two guys are still marking him!" One of the freshmen yelled from the bench.

As a result of Kagami's inability to continue scoring, the upper years pulled ahead fairly quickly with Hyuuga's three-pointers and layups from the other second years. By half time, the seniors were leading by a sizeable gap of 31-15.

One of the freshmen's reasoning for this was put so eloquently as, "I guess they're really strong after all…"

Another first-year agreed with him, but added, "Actually, there was no hope for us from the beginning! This is enough already…"

"Enough already? Hearing you say that **really** pisses me off!" Kagami growled and jerked his fellow club member up by the collar of his jersey.

"Kagami-kun, please calm down." Kuroko appeared behind him and hit the said boy's head with her clipboard. Silence fell over the many shocked members of Seirin due to her unexpected actions. Kagami was the first to react.

"OI, how dare you?" Kagami yelled at the small blue-haired girl, but Kuroko didn't appear to be affected by his loud voice.

"If Kagami-kun does not calm down, how will you have any chance of winning this match?" She replied with a stern tone to her voice and everyone wondered how their manager could be so brave in the face of a wild tiger.

Koganei looked over to Riko and said, "Seems there's a dispute."

The brunette sighed, but didn't do anything to break it up. It didn't seem to be escalating anyway… and now the teams returned their attention to game.

The game had ended unfortunately for the freshmen. With the combination of the double team on Kagami and experience of playing serious basketball games of the upper years, they had won by an exceptionally large margin.

* * *

Kagami had just finished ordering his usual amount of burgers and had sat down at a table, only to find Seirin's new manager seated across from him, once again sipping on a vanilla milkshake.

"Argh! What are you doing here again?"

"You were the one to come sit at my table and I really like the vanilla milkshake here." The girl replied, simply.

"Well, go sit somewhere else!" Kagami growled. A stoic face stared back at him and all he got was a shake of the head. "People might think we're on a date or something!"

"As I had previously stated, I was sitting here first." Kuroko retorted, seeming like she didn't care that he was getting excessively frustrated with her lack of compliance.

* * *

On the morning following the freshmen-sophomore game, the fiery redhead approached the basketball team's captain.

"So when's our first match?"

"Eh, match? You can't play in one yet."

"WHAT?" Kagami looked shocked, "T-tell me why, captain! What's wrong with me?"

"Well, there's nothing _wrong _with you (as far as I can tell at the moment), but you freshmen aren't officially members of the club yet. Go see Riko for a form."

Before Hyuuga could get in another word, the other had already raced off. The redhead realized halfway down the hall, he hadn't bothered asking where he could find aforementioned coach.

"Crap!"

* * *

Panting, he slammed his palms down on the desk in front of him, startling the poor girl, who was enraptured by the game in front of her.

"COACH!"

"What the hell!" Riko exclaimed, spitting out some milk that she had been drinking.

"Make me an actual member of the basketball team! … Please." He tacked on as an afterthought. Riko raised an eyebrow at the change in his speech, but wasn't overly concerned with it.

"Well, you've got the skill and there's free space on the bench, so why not?" She handed him a form, which he hurriedly snatched from her. "Oh, and I'll only accept your form on Monday at 8:40 on the rooftop~"

Kagami looked confused, but went with it.

* * *

The prospective basketball club members were on their way up to the rooftop, when the resident manager decided to speak up, "I wonder what the test could be?"

Everyone present jumped a metre in the air at the sudden reminder of her presence. Fukuda, heart still racing, asked, "Since when have you been there, Kuroko-chan?"

She tilted her head innocently, "Eh? I have been walking with you for a while now."

It was only once everyone had turned back around and began walking again that she smiled secretively.

Kagami opened the rooftop's door and Riko stood there, legs spread apart in a wide stance and arms crossed across her chest.

"Fufufufu... I was waiting!"

Kagami gave a deadpan expression and inquired, "Are you an idiot?"

"I do not think you should be one to criticize others for their stupidity, Kagami-kun..." The blue-haired girl said, her facial expression not changing, but if one listened closely, one could hear the faint tone of amusement. The others that were present stifled their laughter.

Kagami turned a faint pink and shouted, "Shut up, Kuroko!"

"If you keep using that tone of voice with me, perhaps I should double your training, Kagami-kun."

"E-eh?! No, please don't, Kuroko! I'm sorry!"

The other three freshmen glanced at each other and chuckled nervously, "Who knew Kuroko-chan could be so sadistic?"

"But seriously, coach, isn't the morning class ceremony five minutes from now?" The fierce-looking redhead exclaimed.

"Before I tell you what you have to do to prove yourselves, I just want to say that last year when the captain asked me to be coach, he promised that we would be aiming for nationals and nothing less! So if you're not ready for this kind of commitment, then feel free to join another club!"

Kagami looked confused at her declaration and said, "Ha? But I'm strong, coach!"

"I know you're strong, Bakagami, but-" Riko glared at him for speaking out of turn.

"B-Bakagami?!" The tall first-year spluttered, indignantly.

"But I want to check something more important than strength! No matter how seriously you practice, you'll always stay weak if you think, 'maybe one day, I'll do it' or 'as long as I can.' I want you to have a solid goal in mind and the will to achieve it, no matter what! That's why here and now, you will declare your class number, name, and goal for the year." Riko continued on as if she hadn't been interrupted, pausing to let this information sink in, before continuing with a suspiciously sweet smile, "All of us second years did this last year! Oh, and if you can't do that here, I'll make you confess to the girl you like... naked!"

"EHHH?!" All the freshmen, minus the blue-haired girl, looked shocked beyond belief and started whispering amongst themselves.

"What? I didn't hear about this..!"

"Well, they may have mentioned it in passing when they recruited me, but I didn't think we would actually go this far..."

"I'll repeat what I said earlier, but you have to have a concrete objective, so if you have any sort of weak notions like 'let's pass the first round' or 'I'll do my best,' discard them now! ... Or I'll discard you instead." Riko grinned, impishly.

"Shit, I think she's actually serious about this..." Furihata murmured under his breath.

"The teachers will be angry about this later!" Fukuda replied.

"Che, this is too easy; it's not even a test!" Kagami leapt up onto the railing of the rooftop, his actions earning several gasps of concern, "CLASS 1-B, KAGAMI TAIGA! I WILL DEFEAT THE GENERATION OF MIRACLES AND BECOME NUMBER 1 IN JAPAN!"

Hyuuga, who was one of the students standing below, smiled as he heard the commotion that the yelling had caused. _ I guess they're doing it again this year after all._

The boys' basketball coach looked impressed at his display of resolve, "Okay, any other takers? If you don't hurry up, the teachers are gonna get here!"

Before anyone could take the opportunity, the door to the rooftop slammed open, "OIIII! It's you basketball brats again!"

"Ehh? They're really fast this year!" Riko exclaimed. No one managed to escape the wrath of the teacher, including Kuroko, and were all forced to kneel down and given a lengthy lecture.

* * *

Kagami sat down with his usual tray of burgers and seemed to be disgruntled.

"Do they have to be so angry because I spoke a little loudly?" The teen grumbled.

"I agree. I did not even do anything yet and they still scolded me..." Startled, Kagami faced forward, only to see Kuroko's slightly pouting face. She was sitting in front of him once again, sipping what he assumed was a vanilla milkshake.

"AGH! AGAIN?!" The redhead choked on his burger and started coughing madly. He groped around for a drink and took a big gulp of the first one he grabbed.

... Unfortunately for the gigantic first-year, he happened to take Kuroko's precious vanilla milkshake, which resulted in her fist becoming intimately acquainted with his left eye.

"Ow, ow, ow, ow!" Kagami cried out in pain and held onto his eye.

_Maybe I should stop coming here. I seem to bump into her every time! She's also got a mean right hook-what the hell!_ Kagami thought.

"Ah, I apologize, Kagami-kun. I reacted out of pure instinct." The blue-haired girl seemed sincere, "But I was really inspired by yours and coach's words; they made me wish I play basketball... However, for now, I want to help this team become number 1 in Japan."

"How can you say such embarrassing things with a straight face? Eh, whatever, as long as I can face the Generation of Miracles! And it's not 'want,' it's 'will!'"

* * *

The Seirin basketball team was going drills, when Hyuuga looked around and noticed that they were missing a couple of people-namely their manager and coach.

"Hey, do you know where coach and Kuroko-chan are? I know they were going to look for an opponent for a practice match, but..." The captain inquired of one of the freshmen.

Fukuda was the one to reply, "They just returned... But the weird thing was that the coach was skipping on her way back!"

"Ehh? She was skipping?!" Hyuuga paled at the implications of her actions. "Everyone, listen up! You'd all better be ready, when coach skips, that means that our next opponent is strong!"

Just as he announced this, the gym doors opened revealing Kuroko and Riko, and the basketball members yelled in unison, "Ah, welcome back, coach!"

"Yes, we're back! Sorry, we'll go get changed immediately! Oh, but first, we managed to get a match with a school that got a member of the Generation of Miracles!" Riko said, a pleased tone creeping into her voice.

"Seriously?"

Suddenly, Kagami started laughing (to some, it may have seemed like cackling) and everyone stared at him oddly.

"Ahahahaha! I'm so pumped to be finally facing the Generation of Miracles!" Kagami raised his fist, challenging an invisible opponent.

"Kagami-kun, you sure are weird. Here, refreshments for everyone." Kuroko appeared out of thin air, scaring the team again. They slowly got over their fright and thanked their manager for the drinks.

A few minutes later, Riko returned with her clipboard in hand and called for everyone to gather.

"So, we managed to get Kaijou High to aggree to have a practice match with us! I'm sure they won't disappoint." She said confidently. The second-years looked stunned at her statement.

"Kaijou? And aren't they too strong for us, rather than the other way around?" Izuki retorted.

"What was that, Izuki-kun?" The brunette smiled sweetly (too sweetly) in Izuki's direction. The aforementioned male quickly waved his hands in front of him frantically, claiming that he didn't say anything.

"Um, Izuki-senpai, is Kaijou really strong?" Furihata inquired. It seemed the first years didn't know much about the high school basketball circuit.

Hyuuga chose to butt in at this point, "Kaijou is a powerful national-class school that makes it to the Interhigh every year. In addition to that, they've recruited a member from the Generation of Miracles-Kise Ryouta!"

The first years grumbled about how this would be a difficult match. Koganei remembered he had a copy of a magazine from last year that had several pages of articles regarding Teikou's basketball team and he pulled it out (of somewhere; don't ask where, you probably don't want to know).

"Ah, I remember reading about him in this magazine!" The cat-like boy paused as he flipped to the page with Kise on it. "It says he's only been playing basketball since his second year of middle school and he works part-time as a model!"

"What? Only since his second year?!" Tsuchida exclaimed.

"Hmph, some people just have it all... Good looks and skill at basketball; how unfair!" Hyuuga muttered under his breath.

* * *

Kise heard they would be playing against a new and relatively unknown school, Seirin High. There were rumours that there was an amazingly talented freshmen hiding away in this school, so he decided to check out his future opponents. As he walked through the school gates, females would whisper and gossip quietly with one another about his good looks. Kise grinned fondly (causing more than a few squeals) at the attention he was garnering, but he couldn't help but reminisce about his middle school days. He missed the small blue-haired girl that had been a regular on the basketball team dearly.

_Kurokocchi, where did you go?_ The blonde smiled sadly and turned his eyes downcast. Eventually, he found Seirin's gym, which was sparkling new and clean and he couldn't help but be impressed at its size. As he entered the building, a tall red-haired player finished doing a feint and then dunked the basketball. The chatter from the trail of girls following him attracted the members of the basketball club's attention.

Kise grinned, sheepishly, rubbing the back of his head and said, "Sorry, sorry! I'll take care of them!"

The blonde basketball player then proceeded to turn around and began to sign various items with the pen he always carried around.

"Kise Ryouta? What is he doing here?" Riko wondered aloud. The gym doors opened once again, revealing the blue-haired manager holding a bag of refreshments in her arms. Kise looked up at the disturbance and noticeably brightened up at the sight.

Abandoning his many fan girls, he ran up to Kuroko and surprisingly, embraced her tightly, rubbing his cheek against hers.

"KUROKOCCHI!" Fat, crocodile tears made their way down his face as he was smiling ecstatically. Everyone present looked shocked to his or her bones. The conglomerating Kise-fan girls glared jealously at the quiet girl and muttered among themselves.

"_Who is that girl? She's being awfully familiar with Kise-kun…"_

"_How does Kise-kun know her?"_

Meanwhile, the basketball club seemed utterly confused at the interaction between the two. Kuroko did attend Teiko, but she said that she hadn't come into much contact with the Generation of Miracles, so why did Kise seem so familiar with the girl?

"Kise-kun, please let go of me. I cannot breathe properly." Kuroko murmured, trying to pry his hands off of her.

"But, Kurokocchi~ How can you be so cruel? We haven't seen each other in forever! I missed you so much!" More tears poured down the model's visage, which caused his fan girls to intensify their glares.

"_I can't believe her! Making Kise-kun cry?"_

"Hey, how do you know that guy?" Kagami jerked a thumb in the blonde's direction.

"Kurokocchi and I are best friends, aren't we, Kurokocchi?"

"Please stop making assumptions about our relationship."

"Haaah?"

"So mean~ I thought we had a real connection in middle school!" Kise pouted.

"Oi, Kuroko, what the hell is he talking about?" Kagami demanded, looking frustrated at the lack of answers.

"Eh, Kurokocchi, you didn't tell them?" The blonde had leaned down to whisper in her ear.

"No, and I would rather keep it that way, please, Kise-kun." Kuroko quietly requested of her ex-teammate. Kise smiled at her and fibbed instead of telling the truth.

"Kurokocchi and I dated in middle school!" He announced loudly and silence fell across the gym before an explosion of noise occurred.

Several wails and cries of outrage could be heard from Kise's fan girls and hearing some of their reactions did not impress the blonde model.

"_What's so special about her?"_

"_Yeah! She's not particularly pretty or anything!"_

Kise whipped around and for the first time, he showed his fans a truly furious expression, "Don't talk about Kurokocchi that way."

The girls looked shocked and withered from beneath his scowl. They all turned to one another and quickly escaped from the gymnasium. Kise turned back to the basketball club and flashed a smile.

"Well, now that they're gone…"

"EHHHHH!" Apparently the news that their small blue-haired manager had dated this famous model, who also happened to be a member of the Generation of Miracles, back in middle school had finally settled in.

* * *

_Holy mother of all sweet things! The response to the first chapter was simply amazing! Thank you so much for all the reviews, favourites, and alerts; they really made my day! My inbox is flooding with emails for this story. :3_

_I just want the opinions of people of the KnB fandom, when should Kuroko's status as a Teikou regular be revealed? I have a few ideas, but nothing concrete as of yet. I'm thinking I would like this to happen during the Touou-Seirin game, but if you all think it's a little delayed, let me know._

_Another note, unfortunately, as a fourth year university student, I'm extremely busy with school and lab work, so updates will be far from regular. However, I will definitely continue this when I have time. Please be patient with my irregular updating schedule! I hope you enjoyed this extra long chapter! I usually don't type chapters with 3000+ words._


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3**

"EHHH?"

At her teammates' reactions, Kuroko only blinked, while everyone stared intently at her. Kise simply grinned and proceeded to wrap his arms around her, clutching onto the petite girl like an octopus.

"So why are you guys still so chummy if you guys broke up?" Riko inquired, genuinely curious at their interaction.

"Riko-san, do not misinterpret our current relationship. It is leaning more towards one-sided affections." The blue-haired teen replied, causing Kise to whine at her statement. Before he could say anything, a basketball came flying at the pair, but the blonde model gracefully caught it and spun it on the tip of his index finger.

"Hey, that wasn't very nice! You almost hit Kurokocchi!"

"You can't have come all this way, just to see Kuroko. It doesn't seem like you even knew she went here! So I challenge you to one-on-one!" Kagami proclaimed.

"Ehh~ Well when you put it that way, why not?" Kise smirked smugly. He put the basketball on the ground, took off his blazer and rolled up his sleeves. The rest of the occupants of the gym stood off to the side, inspecting the match about to happen.

Kise bounced the ball in front of him, whereas the taller redhead cautiously defended against him. Within a blink of an eye, Kise had moved forwards and quickly dribbled past the opposing player. Although surprised at the speed the other was displaying, Kagami recovered his bearings and ran after the blonde. The small forward did a feint and then dunked, pushing past the redhead's defense, copying the exact same movements as Kagami had done previously. However, Kagami managed to react in time and jumped up to block his dunk, but the blonde managed to slam the ball through the goal.

_Both his feint and power are better than me! _Kagami sat on the ground, shell-shocked.

"Wasn't that exactly like Kagami's dunk from before?" Fukuda questioned in shock.

"No… his movements are even better. This isn't just mere copying—he takes it and makes it his own!" Riko exclaimed.

"Hm… After seeing such a disappointing performance, I can't just let this go!" Kise declared, as he turned around and faced the others. "Please give me Kurokocchi!"

"What?"

"You can't just go around asking us to give her to you!"

"Eh, why not?" Kise pouted.

"I have not agreed to this, Kise-kun. Please do not make decisions without my consent." To the blonde, the manager seemed a bit peeved and he looked somewhat ashamed at his actions.

"But seriously, Kurokocchi! Seirin isn't worthy of having you." Kise's eyes narrowed as he said this.

"I apologize, but I will have decline your proposal." She bowed respectfully.

"Saying it like that sounds like you're rejecting a marriage proposal, Kuroko-chan." Riko murmured under her breath, causing the few males around her to snicker.

"Kise! I've made it my goal to take you and the rest of the Generation of Miracles down!" Kagami shouted fiercely.

"Oh really~ Since you put it like that, I can't just let that slide! I'll see you at the practice match then!" Kise winked and skipped out of the gym with his belongings.

* * *

A few days later, the newly formed basketball club traveled towards Kaijou High. The members of Seirin glanced around in awe at the size and quality of the facilities of Kaijou.

"Ooh, the amount of effort they put into sports clubs here is really on a different level." Hyuuga remarked.

Being ever observant, Seirin's manager took notice of how red Kagami's irises were. "Kagami-kun, you seem a little worse for the wear…"

"S-shut up! I was too fired up at the chance of playing against a member of the Generation of Miracles that I couldn't sleep last night!" Kagami averted his eyes, rubbing the back of his head.

"What are you? An elementary school kid before a field trip?" The girl walking beside him retorted. Before he could respond, a tall blonde ran up to them, wildly waving his hand.

"Hey! Since this place is so big, I came to greet you!" Kise exclaimed, excitedly. He placed a warm hand on Kuroko's shoulder, "Ever since you rejected me, I've cried myself to sleep every night~ No other girl has ever turned me down, you know? But I am interested to see why Kurokocchi is insistent on staying at Seirin…"

After a short walk, Seirin and Kise arrived at Kaijou's gymnasium. Riko's eyebrow twitched as she realized that it was divided in half and that they would be playing on half a court. Her sharp eyes also took note of the fact that one of the backboards of the goal was rusty and clearly needed replacing.

"Ah, you're here—nice to meet you. Where's the coach?" Kaijou's coach inquired. "You're okay with playing on half a court, right?"

Another muscle on the brunette's face twitched as she raised her hand, introducing herself as the one in charge of Seirin.

"Eh? Well, today's match is just going to serve as a warm-up for our team, so we've only made simple arrangements. It's not worth stopping practice for the other members since they won't learn anything. Even though it's only a warm-up, you'll still be playing against our regulars. Please don't let us triple your score."

A black aura surrounds all the members of the opposing team, but it was mostly centred around Riko and Kuroko.

_They're mocking us! In other words, we're just an opponent to fill up their spare time._ Kagami angrily thought.

Kise was in the middle of putting on the top of his basketball uniform, when Takeuchi shouted at him, "Why are you putting on your uniform? You won't be playing today!"

"Eh, but coach…" Kise began protesting, but the older male cut him off.

"You're on a completely different level from the other aces we've recruited from middle school. It's already unfair with the other players, so if you play, it won't even be a match!"

Kise turned around to face his opponents, "Sorry, I'm really sorry, but it seems I'll be on the bench! If you just rattle coach a bit, I'm sure he'll put me into play! Sorry if that sounds selfish, but if you can't even get me to play, then you have no right to say that you want to defeat the Generation of Miracles!"

Following his speech, the other coach showed Seirin to their spare locker rooms. Kuroko stops beside Kise and says, "You will not be on the bench for long, Kise-kun."

Not-so-subtly pouring more oil to the flames, Riko smiled innocently at the male coach, "Er, excuse me, I think it'll be impossible for a warm-up… Because I don't think you can afford to hold back!"

* * *

_Thank so much for all your wonderful comments and for sticking around with my really irregular update schedule. I know it's been a while and I know it's a really short chapter, but I just wanted to get this chapter out of the way. Plus I'm updating in the middle of my exams, so my apologies for a short chapter. Things are starting to heat up next chapter, so look out for it! :)_

_To shiroyuuko: Thanks for catching that little flub on my part! Fixed it :)_

_I totally forgot until after I put up the previous chapter that I wanted to include an omake! So here it is, folks!_

* * *

OMAKE

The morning after Kagami had once again run into the blue-haired manager, he woke up with a black eye… So it was no surprise, that there were several questioning glances from his teammates at the conspicuous bruise.

"Um… Kagami, did you get into a fight?" Hyuuga asked, pointing at his eye.

"Did you get pawned by a chess piece?" Izuki grinned, foxily, but everyone stared with deadly intent at the terrible pun that had just escaped the second-year's mouth.

"No? Hmm, I guess it's back to the drawing board…" The rest of Seirin's basketball team simply ignored his muttering and returned their attention to their bruised ace.

"So, Kagami, what did you do?" Riko asked pointing her finger directly at his face. Kagami scratched the back of his head, sheepishly and said that he accidentally drank the blue-haired manager's vanilla milkshake.

The jaws of his fellow first years surrounding him dropped.

"Uh… Kagami, you realize that's like… like… an i-indirect k-kiss, right?" Furihata stumbled over the last few words, having no experience with girls.

"So sly, Kagami!"

"E-eh?! No, it doesn't mean anything!" A red flush overtook his cheeks as he vehemently tried denying the event.


End file.
